The First Weekend of 2013

We have fallen into the Texas Gulf Coastal winter weather pattern I remember from my youth…Overcast and damp…Cool and breezy… Just generally dreary all day every day.

Though, I must say, after a few years of less than optimal rainfall patterns, a bit of dreary misty, rainy weather is appreciated. Though it would be nice to see it spread out throughout the year.

I put up bird feeders for the first time in almost 20 years this winter. And last week they were discovered. So far they have only been visited by a trio of goldfinches… Which is kind of nice as I had never observed them on this property before. I had tried, when we first moved out here, to set up feeders. But the seed would go bad before it would be eaten, so after a while, I gave up and let the birds scavenge there own food.

Last week also brought some regular observations of the bluebirds that have been calling these grounds home for the past few years. I have also spotted the return of the yellow-rumped warblers. They are a mainstay of our winter landscape, flitting from place to place about the yard.

Yesterday I added a couple of more stations to my feeder setup. I can’t wait to see what will be attracted to the new setup…

Published by

Gary Boyd

3 thoughts on “The First Weekend of 2013”

I first heard the goldfinches about two weeks ago. Now, they’re everywhere here. I always can hear them before I see them – I think they’re in the crepe myrtles, eating the seed heads that have been left. And they do like the seeds of the Chinese tallow and chinaberries, so if you have those trees around, look for them there. Sometimes they’ll strip those before coming to a feeder.

I’m loving the gray and gloomy, myself. I’m not going to grump one bit about rain. We need to fill everything up, and maybe even have a little surplus. I looked at that latest dust storm in west Texas and thought, “Bring on the rain. If it knocks out my working time, I’ll sacrifice for the greater good!” (Well, as long as it doesn’t go on forever!)

I wasn’t really complaining about the rain. Though, for some reason, the gray days are affecting me more this year than I can remember in past years. It may have to do with the lingering cold that hit me around Christmas and hasn’t been kind enough to leave yet.

If the goldfinches are partial to crepe myrtles and tallows, then that could explain why I haven’t seen much of them in the past. My very old crepe myrtles don’t have the large flower heads of the more modern varieties, And they just spent the fall cutting down all of the tallows in what used to be woods behind my house… So my newly installed feeders were probably a welcome addition to the local food supply.